captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> the first thing i picked up on is how wicked smart he was. >> smart? >> oh, like genius, absolutely. >> texas ranger james holland is talking about the most prolific serial killer in american history, samuel little. >> where did you kill the most? >> as you'll hear, the ranger is determined to solve the murders little committed in 19 states. >> she was laughing... while i was killing her. >> yeah? >> with hours of conversation and works of art... wow! ...produced from a serial killer's photographic memory. ( ticking ) >> who among us hasn't wished we could read someone else's mind? well, we've been following studies that are doing just

that. identifying patterns in the brain that can reveal what a person is actually feeling. >> i think the emotion is envy. >> wow. >> that was correct. >> what were you thinking for envy? >> ( laughs ) >> something personal? >> i was just thinking of beautiful models. ( ticking ) ( bells ringing ) >> last easter, we visited a fortress against time, where art is created to help heal one of america's greatest wounds. it is the story of the resurrection of the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11. >> the good of mankind can conquer evil, no matter what. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm norah o'donnell. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes."

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>> alfonsi: tonight, you're going to hear about the man the f.b.i. is now calling the most prolific serial killer in the history of the united states. as we first reported last october, his name is samuel little, and over the course of year and a half, he confessed to 93 murders. that's more than were committed by ted bundy and jeffrey dahmer combined. no one would have known thea xaa hunch. little had never confessed to

anyone about anything, but over the course of 700 hours of interviews, ranger james holland coaxed the 80-year-old into revealing his life's work. the confessions have enabled investigators across the country to solve dozens of cold cases. but holland needs help to match up the rest. it's why the texas ranger is telling us the story of how he got america's deadliest serial killer to confess. with a swagger that would make john wayne envious, texas ranger james holland arrived last summer at the california state prison. he was escorted to the interview room for another round with samuel little, the killer who went undetected for nearly half a century. don't be fooled by his grandfatherly appearance. >> s y n of 5 years.

>> alfonsi: 93 murders in 19 states, from 1970 to 2005. now, near the end of his own life, and out of appeals, little has been spilling his secrets to ranger holland over the course of several interviews since may of 2018. >> james holland: where did you kill the most? >> little: oh, that's easy. florida and california. >> holland: what city did you kill the most in? >> little: miami and los angeles. >> holland: and how many did you kill in los angeles? >> little: los angeles, probably 20. >> alfonsi: so how did he skip by so long? >> holland: he was so good at what he did. you know, "how did you get away with it, sammy?" did the crime, left town. >> alfonsi: the drifter from preyed on theringes ociostegadi police wouldwork tar th say was a cunning killer, who sized up his victims and his surroundings. >> holland: e ththt irsg in

ckthis guy-- >> alfonsi: smart? >> holland: oh, like, genius. yes, absolutely. >> alfonsi: why? why do you say that? >> holland: oh, well, number one, you know, the photographic memory, his memory for details. you know, like, "sammy, tell me what's around her?" "there's three tombstones over there. there's a caliche road. drive down a quarter of a mile, there's a white baptist church that needs to be whitewashed." phenomenal. >> alfonsi: for example, little remembered unusual arches close to the spot where he killed a woman outside of miami. sure enough, when miami detectives investigated, they saw the arches. little had strangled miriam chapman near those arches in 1976. you've never felt like he sent you on some wild goose chase? >> holland: no. nothing he's ever said has been proven to be wrong or false. we've been able to prove up almost everything he said. >> judge: mr. little! >> alfonsi: because of little's confessions, judges and prosecutors nationwide have been able to close long-standing cases. >> judge: what is your plea to the charge of murder?

>> little: guilty. >> alfonsi: here was little, via a video link from his prison last august, pleading guilty to two stranglings in cincinnati. in just over a year, 50 cold cases that had been dormant for decades were solved due to the detailed confessions little provided to the ranger. >> holland: tell me about north little rock. kell me what that girl lood . >> little: had buck teeth. had a gap between her teeth, that's what it was. >> alfonsi: little grows disturbingly animated as he describes how he strangled his victims. >> little: you know that she's fighting for her life, and i'm fighting for my pleasure. >> alfonsi: so how do you reach a serial killer? how do you get them to talk? >> holland: you avoid the things that normally work for investigators. >> alfonsi: what do you mean by that? ndoloiclu os: ine d foavr .hgse thfamily >> alfonsi: because they don't have remorse, and they don't care about closure? >> holland: no, no, it doesn't appeal to them at all. i mean, you're asking them to

open up their soul to the things that are more intimate to them than anything in life. why should they do that with you? and that's what you're working for. >> little: a little skinny black girl. real friendly. she was laughing while i was killing her. >> holland: with sammy, there's indications of visualization, of when he's thinking about a crime scene. he'll start stroking his face. and as he's starting to picture a victim, you'll see him look out and up. and you can tell he has this revolving carousel of victims, and it's just spinning, and he's waiting for it to stop at the one that he wants to talk about. >> alfonsi: investigators had discovered that little liked to sketch. ranger holland gave him art supplies, wondering if he might be able to use his remarkable memory to draw his victims. gasp and he has. wow. these are all of his drawings. >> holland: these are all his.

>> alfonsi: they're pretty detailed. is there one that you looked at and you knew right away, oh, that's... ? >> holland: there's a lot of them. >> alfonsi: really? >> holland: yeah, as soon as we matched it up. >> alfonsi: how many has he sketched? >> holland: i think there's somewhere around 50. >> alfonsi: the note on this one is super creepy. >> holland: "sam killed me, but i love him." he writes notes on some of the drawings. >> alfonsi: tall girl by the highway. girl in a strip joint. left in the woods. 1972? and it's so... >> holland: right, yes, and we've matched that one up. >> alfonsi: you have? >> holland: yes, that's a new orleans murder. >> alfonsi: i can't remember the person who checked me out of the hotel this morning. if someone gave me a million dollars to draw her face, i couldn't do it. the fact that he can still do this? >> holland: right. he basically takes a photograph in his mind of exactly what he sees as he leaves them. >> alfonsi: two and a half years ago, ranger holland had never heard of samuel little. little was rotting away in this prison at the edge of california's mojave desert, sentenced to three life terms in 2014 for strangling three women. in court, prosecutors had labeled little a sexual predator.

he denied everything, and was defiant to the end. but the f.b.i. noted that little had somehow skirted charges for violent crimes year after year, in state after state, in places where women disappeared, including texas. that drew the interest of ranger james holland, a skilled interviewer who says he's convinced dozens of killers to confess during his career. typically, when people want you involved in a case, they want you there because... why? >> holland: virtually every single case that i ever deal with, there's no d.n.a. evidence, there's no forensics, there's no nothing. >> alfonsi: and there was nothing linking samuel little to additional murders, just suspicions. the ranger was intrigued by a cold case in odessa, texas. denise brothers was a prostitute working on the wrong side of town. then she went missing in 1994. >> damien brothers: we looked remembers driving around odessa with his grandparents, looking for her.

a month later, denise brothers' body was found at the back of an abandoned parking lot, dumped in brush. >> brothers: we were asked to come down and look at the body. >> alfonsi: you had to do that? >> brothers: yeah. >> alfonsi: how old were you? >> brothers: 14. >> alfonsi: that sticks with you. >> brothers: yeah. >> alfonsi: for 24 years, damien didn't know who killed his mother, or why. ranger holland learned denise brothers had been strangled, and that samuel little was in west texas at the time. >> holland: did sammy do it? i don't know, but i felt like there was a, you know, a reasonable probability that he did it. >> alfonsi: to find out if his instinct was right, the ranger went to southern california to interview little, who had always been hostile to law enforcement. >> holland: did i believe he was going to confess? ( laughs ) complete arrogance on my part. absolutely. >> alfonsi: and for the first couple of minutes, it really was going quite poorly. >> holland: oh, horrible. >> alfonsi: he's raging.

>> holland: oh, yes. at he had been wrongly depicted as a rapist. >> holland: there was no doubt in my mind that samuel little was not a rapist. but i told him, he knew it, and i knew it, that he was a killer. and he stops, and he kind of looks at me for a second. and he didn't seem to mind it. and then you could see in his eyes, as he's looking away, and he follows back as i say the word, "killer." and that appealed to him. that's how he defines himself. >> alfonsi: as a killer? >> holland: yes. >> alfonsi: was there a moment where you said, "i've got him?" >> holland: yeah, when he talked about, there may be three victims in texas. >> alfonsi: three victims, and one of them was in odessa, texas. >> christie palazzolo: all of a sudden, we turned to each other. "oh my gosh, he's talking about odessa." and we grab our files and start going through and checking what he's talking about and verifying, and... >> alfonsi: christie palazzolo of the f.b.i. and angela williamson of the department of justice analyze violent crimes. they were listening to the interview across the hall,

and had access to the f.b.i. database and the denise brothers file. you've got the photos of the crime scene in front of you. did it match up right away? >> angela williamson: oh, yes. ( laughs ) >> palazzolo: yeah. >> alfonsi: and he had details. >> palazzolo: yes. >> alfonsi: that hadn't been reported? >> palazzolo: extreme details, yes. >> alfonsi: like what? >> williamson: in denise's case, he remembered that she wore a denture. >> alfonsi: the autopsy confirmed brothers did wear a denture. all the details matched. samuel little had killed denise brothers. ranger holland knew he was onto something big. he schemed to have little extradited to texas for a few months, so he could talk to him around the clock and extract more confessions. i would think texas, with the death penalty, is the last place a killer like sammy little wants to go. >> holland: yeah, basically, what i told him was, i can go to the district attorney and i can ask him to take the death penalty off the table, and i believe that he will do that. >> alfonsi: which was especially brazen, since ranger holland had never met the district attorney in odessa, bobby bland. >> bobby bland: and he said,

"i'd like a letter from you, on your letterhead, saying that you would waive the death penalty." and i said, "well, you know, that's a pretty tall order just to do blindly." >> alfonsi: so why? why did you do it? >> bland: there's a greater good. this strange ranger that was calling me from california, telling me he had a serial killer. i put my faith in him. >> alfonsi: the next morning, the letter waiving the death penalty was in samuel little's hands. the rangers sent a plane to whisk little to texas, where he was housed in the wise county jail. for 48 straight days, for hours on end, the two men sat in a small room. during that time, little confessed to 65 of his murders. the ranger plied little with pizza and dr. pepper to keep the stories flowing. people will hear this and go, why were you treating a serial killer so well? >> holland: what do i say to that? i say that we can have one case, or we can have 93 cases. >> alfonsi: it was in your best interest for him to be

comfortable. >> holland: oh, absolutely, yes, yes. >> alfonsi: so why you? why did he finally confess to you? >> holland: at the end of the day, maybe sammy just liked me. >> alfonsi: today, little is back at the california state prison. we wanted to interview him on camera, but state law won't allow it. so we asked him to call us. ( phone ringing ) he did, answering our questions for nearly an hour. we wondered why he decided to confess now. are you worried that there might be innocent people in jail for some of your crimes? >> little: probably be numerous people who are-- been convicted and sent to penitentiary on my behalf. i say, "if i can help get somebody out of jail, you know, then god might smile a little bit more on me." >> alfonsi: for most of s. >> little: they was broke and homeless, and they walked right into mfo ait wncom

stories.n to his graphic towards the end of the interview we asked him to reflect on the depths of his crimes. >> little: i don't think there was another person that did what i liked to do. i think i'm the only one in the wold. and that's not an honor. that is a curse. >> alfonsi: with little's old age, failing health, and a fear that his memory could slip, there is urgency to figure out who and where the rest of his victims are. >> holland: it's kind of like, never-ending. you have to continue. you have to finish it. >> alfonsi: ranger holland's been encouraging little to keep drawing. three new sketches recently arrived at the ranger's texas office. three new faces, last seen in the mind of the most prolific serial killer in american history. since our story first aired, law enforcement has matched another ten victims to samuel little. ( ticking )

>> how you can help the fbi with the remaining cold cases. it may help a family member or a retired detective. >> at 60 minutes.com sponsored by kolo guard.

>> how you can help the f.b.i. >> stahl: who among us hasn't wished we could read someone else's mind? know exactly what they're thinking? well, that's impossible, of course, since our thoughts are,. private. personal. unreachable. or at least, that's what we've always-- well, thought. as we reported last fall, advances in neuroscience have shown that, on a physical level, our thoughts are actually a vast

network of neurons firing all across our brains. so if that brain activity could be identified and analyzed, could our thoughts be decoded? could our minds be read? well, a team of scientists at carnegie mellon university in pittsburgh has spent more than a decade trying to do just that. we started our reporting on their work ten years ago, and what they've discovered since has drawn us back. in carnegie mellon's scanner room, two floors underground, a steady stream of research subjects come to have their brains, and thoughts, "read" in this m.r.i. machine. it's a type of scanning called functional m.r.i., or f-m.r.i... >> all right, we'll cue it up and then we'll start. >> stahl: ...that looks at whats happening inside the brain as a person thinks. >> marcel just: it's like being an astronomer when the first

telescope is discovered, or being a biologist when the first microscope is developed. >> stahl: osstce just says this technology has made it possible for the first time to see the physical makeup of our thoughts. >> okay, you ready to get started? >> stahl: when we first visited dr. just's lab ten years ago, he and his team had conducted a study. they put people in the scanner and asked them to think about ten objects-- five of them tools like screwdriver and hammer, and and castle-- whileings like measuring activity levels throughout their brains. the idea was to crunch the data and try to identify distinctive patterns of activity for each object. you had them think about a screwdriver. >> just: mm-hmm. >> stahl: and the computer found the place in the brain where that person was thinking "screwdriver"? >> just: "screwdriver" isn't one place in the brain.

you think about how you hold it, how you twist it, what it looks like. >> stahl: and each of those functions are in different places? >> just: correct. >> stahl: he showed us that by dividing the brain into thousands of tiny cubes and analyzing the amount of activity in each one, his team was able to identify unique patterns for each object. you're reading their mind. >> just: we're identifying the thought that's occurring. >> stahl: whoa. >> just: it's incredible, just incredible. >> stahl: incredible, but only the beginning. in the decade since, professor just's lab has taken this technique and applied it far beyond hammers and igloos, to increasingly complex thoughts. this is basic science, knowledge for knowledge's sake. not trying to cure disease, but to understand the fundamental workings of our bodies, and in this case, of our minds. one of dr. just's main questions

was whether he could find patterns for abstract ideas, so he did a study asking people to think about forgiveness. gossip. spirituality. could they be identifiable in the brain the way the screwdriver was? remarkably, the answer was yes. this was the activation pattern when people thought about spirituality. and this was gossip. one of my favorite subjects. >> just: and you see a slightly different pattern. >> stahl: one difference between the two was in areas of the brain scientists had already shown become active when we think about other people, circled in blue. those areas lit up bright red when subjects thought about gossip. not so much for spirituality. in another study, dr. just tested whether patterns are the same when people think in different languages. they are. and he's asked acting students

to conjure up emotions in the scanner to see if feelings have distinctive activation patterns, too. and what did you find? >> just: each emotion had its own characteristic values, and you could tell which one was which. >> stahl: and it's the same in every head. >> just: amazingly, it was common across people. >> stahl: common across people? does that mean we could put our colleague, associate producer jaime woods, into a scanner for the first time, and dr. just's team would be able to identify her emotions? so, she's seeing words. for nine seconds each, jaime's job was to think of little scenarios that would conjure up the feelings on the screen. after she came out... welcome back. ( laughs ) >> jaime woods: thank you. >> stahl: ...a computer program took tried to decode her thoughts. so, what were you thinking about for disgust? ( laughs ) >> woods: i was thinking of someone throwing up on me...

( laughs ) at, like, a baseball game. >> stahl: so, could the computer read her brain patterns and tell what she'd been feeling? >> computer voice: the program's answer is "i think the emotion is disgust." the experienced emotion was actually disgust. that was correct. >> woods: awesome. >> stahl: next... >> computer voice: i think the emotion is env >> stahl: what were you thinking for envy? >> woods: i was jy.ust thinkingf beautiful models. >> stahl: the computer program got all of jaime's emotions right. it's reading what jaime's feeling. >> just: and it's funny, isn't it, because it's so personal. we all think of our own thoughts as so individual, so intimate. how could anybody else's thoughts be like mine? and they are. >> stahl: it's feelings, too. >> just: yes, feelings. now, obviously, people think very different thoughts. but, you know, like, people choose to do different thingswi lk put ot innt o dyalks sideways. nobody systematically. there's something about the

biological apparatus that makes you act in a certain way with your body. and i don't think we realize the degree to which the biological apparatus that we have in our skulls governs, shapes the way we think. >> stahl: professor just's goal is to one day create a dictionary of brain activation, a key to what all different thoughts look like inside our minds. but, he also started wondering whether those definitions might be different in people with disorders like autism. >> okay, you're going to swing your legs up at this end. >> stahl: prior research had found structural differences in the brains of people with autism, so the question was heghtterns differ too. >> hi, jeff, tis ta. te you doing? recruited 17 adults with autism and asked them, as well as 17 control subjects, to think about social interactions like adore,

hug, humiliate-- challenging terrain for many with autism. the results were striking. the activation patterns differed enough to tell who had autism and who didn't with 97% accuracy. >> just: the people with autism thought of these social interactions apart from themselves. >> stahl: as he showed us in these findings for the word "hug," the key differences were in brain regions that activate when we think about ourselves, circled in blue. right there. >> just: there, and there. those areas light up much more among the controls. >> stahl: whaus ere thsmti subjects showed far less activation. >> just: they thought of it more like a definition of "hug," without self-involvement. >> stahl: and that, you saw, with word after word? >> just: yes. >> david brent: i just thought, "wow, this is the coolest thing i've heard in-- i don't know how long." >> stahl: david brent is a psychiatrist at the university

of pittsburgh medical center, where he runs a clinic for suicidal adolescents. h attena talk marcel just was giving about his autism findings and immediately wondered about his own patients. >> brent: so i went up to him afterwards and i said, "would you be interested in talking about maybe doing a study on suicide?" >> stahl: you hear about cases of suicide where the person had been depressed, but you also hear of situations where people say, "there was nothing wrong." >> brent: suicide is a great mystery, because the person who knows the most about why it happened isn't there to talk with. you try to reconstruct what happened, but nobody has a window into people's, you know, interior-- thoughts. >> stahl: nobody, that is, except someone with a mind- reading device. drs. just and brent began planning a pilot study to see if the scanner might reveal what is altered in the thoughts of people contemplating suicide.

they reached out to matt nock, a harvard professor who has studied how difficult it is for doctors and emergency rooms to know which patients are safe to send home. is this the first time anybody's looked inside the brain to see about suicidal thoughts? >> matt nock: yes. this is the first study i have ever heard of where someone's looked in the brain of someone who's suicidal, who's actively thinking about death or suicide. >> dan toski: you don't see life as something that's going to be fixed. the only way to get out of it is to kill yourself. >> stahl: dan toski, a former patient at dr. brent's clinic, volunteered to participate in the study to help scientists better understand suicidal thinking. do you think in terms of the word "pain?" >> toski: pain is when you break a limb or you have a migraine, and it hurts so bad that you can't see. this, being depressed and suicidal, it-- it's much

greater. >> stahl: much greater? >> toski: much greater than pain. >> stahl: to be in the study, subjects had to have had suicidal thoughts within the prior month. they, and control subjects, were asked to think about words like funeral and death, as well as positive words including praise, good, and carefree. in both categories, the suicidal group differed from controls. this is the group that's thinking about suicide? as with the autism study, the key differences turned out to be in those self-related areas. they lit up bright red among suicidal subjects when they thought about death-related words. >> brent: i give you the word "funeral," you know, what do you think about? maybe your grandmother's funeral, or something like that. >> stahl: exactly. >> brent: a suicidal person "ml.uch more likely to say,

rathe fufindings were exactly te opposite. when the non-suicidal controls thought about the word carefree, they thought about something that involved themselves; suicidal subjects significantly less so. did you ever imagine that you could ask people to think about the word "carefree," and you'd be able to tell if someone was having suicidal thoughts? it's-- >> just: no. you know, i-- >> stahl: it's-- it's a breakthrough idea. >> just: it's a lot of fun, if you're a basic scientist, to discover how things work. but it becomes-- there's an extra level of gratification when you learn that it's possibly helpful and useful. >> stahl: this work is still in its infancy. drs. just, brent, and nock are doing a larger n.i.h.-funded study to collect more data. and while for now it's too costly and cumbersome to put people into m.r.i. scanners to see if it's safe to release them from the hospital... if they could come up with an easier way to do this-- >> nock: absolutely. just like the first g.p.s. was, you know, a big computer in a

big room, and now it's in all of our phones, if there is a way to, a few steps down the road, make much more compact this approach and bring it into emergency rooms and outpatient clinics, it could go a huge way towards moving forward clinical care. >> stahl: but as this technology advances toward fulfilling its full promise, it's hard not to also wonder about its peril. will it ever be possible to read someone's thoughts precisely? >> just: the thoughts are there precisely, if you could just get close enough to the electrical activity. >> stahl: you think one day we'll figure out how to do that. >> just: yes. >> stahl: which means that we'll never be able to have our thoughts completely secure within ourselves. >> just: i think it will be technologically possible to invade people's thoughts. but it's our societal obligation to make sure that never happens. ( ticking )

>> disqualified from the 4th round match after striking a ball alcohol accidentally hit a line j. in nfl news, adrian peterson is joining the line, and will sign with the titans on a one year deal. for 24/7 this is abc news.com.

( ticking ) >> pelley: construction resumed last month on the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11. as we reported last spring,the y 20 years struggling to rebuild st. nicholas greek orthodox church into a national shrine at ground zero. at times opposed by the powerful, sabotaged by human frailty, the project is rising again, thanks to those who never lost faith in the resurrection of st. nicholas.

in2, a tavern found religion. during prohibition, greek immigrants consecrated a lower manhattan bar with a cross. >> bill tarazonas: the first time i walked in, all right, and i saw that little place in there, beautiful little place, i felt something. >> pelley: bill tarazonas was the last caretaker of st. nicholas. >> tarazonas: it was my pride and joy. >> pelley: you called the place uncle nick? >> tarazonas: that's the first thing, when i walked in, says, "hi, uncle nick. how are you?" ( laughs ) that was my thing. ♪ >> pelley: "uncle nick" was traditional. the tomb of jesus was carried through streets on easter. on the epiphany, the cross was raised from the river, symbolizing the baptism of jesus. his face was humble, bnside, there was soul-- rich images of jesus, mary and the saints,

known as iconography. developers coveted the land, but the lone church stood its ground. >> regina katopodis: they were set that no one was going to take their church. my father spoke for all. there was not to be any compromise. >> pelley: regina katopodis'hurd frustrated developers for 34 years. >> katopodis: he said, "they offered me $15 million and i said no." there was absolutely no hesitation about it. >> pelley: there was even a time that the archdiocese itself wanted to sell the church.w cone esodis: fwas ancip and a church is a body of people. all he had to do was say no. >> pelley: for eight decades, st. nicholas remained defiant at 155 cedar street-- an address that would mark its place in history.

>> tarazonas: before we knew it, hell broke loose. ( sirens ) >> pelley: bill tarazonas was there on 9/11. >> tarazonas: the building just went like this. what's going on here? and then i walk outside. that was the worst thing in my life. >> pelley: a landing gear wheel bounded into the parking lot. tarazonas opened his van to find human remains across his seat. remscgin) tower two collapsed. that's when you knew that st. nicholas was gone. >> tarazonas: yep. i lost part of me. i lost part of me. >> what the hell is going on? >> pelley: the days that followed yielded only fragments. >> peter: we'll find more, father. >> father john: we will, we will. ( chanting ) >> pelley: greek archbishop demetrios, on the left,

mf w >> archbishop: god bless all these people. >> demetrios: a group of workers came and they said, "we would like to ask you to pray for us." i say, "why?" they said, "here, as we work, we know that we deal also with remnants of human bodies. please, pray for us." >> pelley: among the dead was 31-year-old john katsimatides, a bond broker in one of the towers, who had discovered st. nicholas on a lunch hour. his sister, anthoula katsimatides, told us his remains were never found. >> anthoula katsimatides: i don't have a gravesite to visit. and it's incredibly difficult, because we never buried anything or, you know, said goodbye. >> pelley: what was it about tho your brother?

>> katsimatides: with all these buildings and concrete, i think that he felt-- i know... that he probably felt at peace, lighting a candle and just saying a prayer for whatever was going on. >> pelley: those buildings and concrete became the 9/11 memorial, and plans were drawn for a small domed church, the st. nicholas national shrine. ( chanting ) but, as the congregation prayed at the site each year, there were delays, and a budget that quadrupled to $85 million. construction began in 2015. the dome rose a year later. but in 2017, the money from private donations ran out. construction stopped. ( ferry horn ) only faith kept st. nicholas alive, as we discovered 5,000 miles away. ( bells ringing )

on the greek coast, mount athos is a hermit peninsula of 20 ancient orthodox monasteries. behind the walls of the xenophontos monastery, work on st. nicholas never wavered. >> jeremiah hails: xenophontos is one of the oldest monasteries on mount athos. the first historical witness we have is from the year 998. >> pelley: father jeremiah hails from a town named for a saint-- san angelo, texas. >> hails: this was where god wanted me, and here i am. >> pelley: you've been here how long? >> hails: 22 years. >> pelley: the xenophontos monastery is a fortress against time. ( monks chanting ) >> hails: about 50 monks live at this monastery. there's traditional task, or what we call obediences in the monastery. thmonks wo refectory; the monks who work in the garden; the monks who work among the olive trees,

among others. we have, of course, the iconographers, who are very, very cultivated and have really mastered their art form. >> pelley: master iconographer father lukas is painting the iconography for the new st. nicholas in the old craft of egg tempera. >> lukas ( translated ): god has called me to do this work, to communicate the spirit of mount athos to the people. >> pelley: father lukas granted us an early look at 56 icons for thojt. he p ion, athe patron of seafarers, lifting a man from a violent sea. but what's troubling these waters is 9/11. >> lukas ( translated ): i personally want this church, through the iconography, to open up a new horizon for people, that they come away with hope. if this happens, the icons have

fulfilled their purpose. >> pelley: near father lukas' studio, we met the designer of the church at ground zero-- he'd been to mount athos twice before, for inspiration. you know, i wonder, what does an architect see when we walk through this courtyard? >> santiago calatrava: i believe you see that you do not need to be an architect, or know a lot about the history of architecture, to feel architecture. it's like music or something like that. you just have to open your heart. >> pelley: for st. nicholas, in manhattan, his inspiration came from the hagia sophia, the former orthodox church in istanbul. inside, calatrava sketched an icon of mary. and he thought, since she carried christ, her body was a church. >> calatrava: so there, herself becomes a kind of temple, isn't it? containing something that,

according to the orthodox faith, you know, is almost uncontainable, you know? which is the idea of god. >> pelley: the vestments of the new st. nicholas will be white marble, crowned with a translucent dome. at night, it will be a beacon. >> calatrava: light. very important. >> pelley: why is the light very important? >> calatrava: you know, light, in my eyes, is to architecture what sound is to music. ( monks chanting ) >> pelley: light-- candle light-- illuminated the easter celebration on our visit to mount athos in 2018. ( monks chanting ) abbot alexios led the procession and, at midnight, quoted the angel in the book of mark. ( monks chanting ) "he is risen, he is not here."

in the sanctuary, chandeliers were propelled into orbits to symbolize the joint celebration on earth and in heaven... ( monks chanting ) ...recalling the psalm, "praise him sun and moon, praise him all you stars of lights." but in manhattan, there has been little sound or light since construction stopped in 2017. an investigation into finances revealed that millions meant for st. nicholas were spent on other expenses of the archdiocese. about $3.5 million was used

elsewhere by the archdiocese. is that correct? >> demetrios: it was a transferring of money from the st. nicholas to another kind of account. afterwards, we heard about that, i ask, "why you did that?" i said, "you should not have touched the st. nicholas money at all, for no matter what." it was a mistake, has been corrected. >> pelley: the money was returned. last year, archbishop demetrios resigned. a new archbishop and new york state named an independent board to raise the last $45 million and manage construction. fresh hope for anthoula katsimatides, who lost her brother. >> katsimatides: i know that once st. nicholas opens... mom and i will visit and say a prayer for john there. a place of love and hope for all family members and for all

people from around the world who are going to come and visit and pay their respects to everyone that died that day. ( monks chanting ) >> pelley: last summer, fatherme measure of god's empty gallery. he told us the walls anticipating his paintings represent the most important f hilis regina katopodis, whose father had refused to sell the old church. >> katopodis: i'm in it for my dad, and for everybody else that has gone and perished, and hoping, with their last breath, that they would be able to see st. nicholas rebuilt. >> pelley: 100 years from now, what will that little church on the plaza say to the world? >> katopodis: that the good of mankind can conquer evil, no matter what. >> pelley: it was the orthodox

church that made the cross the symbol of christianity. but, during construction, it was discovered the dome of st. nicholas, alone, had reached the maximum height allowed by a higher power-- the port authority of new york and new jersey, which controls the site. a fis alfeded def salvation,ci if all goes well-- and it rarely has-- st. nicholas will be born again next year, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a monument to death and life and unremitting faith. ( ticking )

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access.wgbh.org ( >> previously on "big brother all-stars"! christmas was part of the six-person committee alliance. >> i don't want to get everyone in the same room. >> i like that. >> she was also working close with the meow-meow. >> meanwhile, enzo had his own six-player squad. >> the slick six. >> i love it. >> trouble in paradise for the slick six. >> they would not be afraid to strike against us at some point in the game. >> this is why i want you out. she loves to fuel the fire with me to get you out. >> dude, they are going to eat themselves up and we're going to be like okay